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Rural Conditions in the 
Kingdom of Jerusalem 
during the Twelfth and 
Thirteenth Centuries .'. 












A THESIS 

Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Philosophy 
of the University of Pennsylvania 

By 






Helen Gertrude Preston 

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree 
Doctor of Philosophy 










PHILADELPHIA 

1903 











Rural Conditions in the Kingdom 
of Jerusalem 



DURING THE 



Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 



A THESIS 



Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Philosophy 
of the University of Pennsylvania 



By 

Helen Gertrude Preston 

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree 
Doctor of Philosophy 



PHILADELPHIA 

AviL Printing Company 
1903 






Gift 

Hie University 

23M'04 



Corvtr 



q3. number 




31533 



tmp 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I. 
The Land 5 



CHAPTER 11. 
The People 18 

CHAPTER III, 
The Land and the People 35 

Bibliography 54 



CHAPTER I. 
The Land. 

Looking at the map of the Christian states of Syria 
during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we find 
in the north the county of Edessa, which acted as a 
check to the oncoming Turk, until it was finally seized 
by the latter after a Christian domination of less than 
fifty years. A little to the southwest of this, was the 
principality of Antioch, directly south of which lay the 
small county of Tripoli; due south of this was the 
Royal Domain or the Kingdom of Jerusalem proper. 
Small as each of these principalities was, it neverthe- 
less consisted of different fiefs, Avhose holders were in 
several instances, notably in Jerusalem proper, power- 
ful enough to give special names to the sections held 
b}^ them. Within these there were numerous towns, 
several of which lying on the seacoast were in the 
enjoyment of a brisk trade with the west at the time 
of the arrival of the first Crusaders. Numerous, too, 
comparatively speaking, were the monasteries which 
grew so wealthy as time went on. The few fortresses 
there at the beginning of the twelfth century were 
supplemented by others. ^Military orders, early estab- 
lished, flourished as time went on, and vied with the 
monasteries in their wealth and property. 

In the charters and documents of the time the term 
most met with to describe the unit of rural habitation 
and feudal possession is the casale} There were some- 



^ As the feiida and villcs, though often mentioned, can be resolved 
into units dealt with in this chapter, the}' are not treated separately. 

(5) 



6 

where about six hundred of these c as alia, which were 
almost exclusively Oriental in name.^ Writers of the 
time refer to them also as loca suhnrhana^ While the 
unit differed greatly in size, the usual amount of land 
appears to have been from ten to twenty ploughlands, 
yet there was in one instance the very unusual amount 
of ten miles in one casale.^ While in many instances 
the casalia were small, yet the size was often compen- 
sated for by the number in the holding, as we find 
grants of ten, twenty, or even thirty, to one person or 
society.^ There seemed also to be a difference in 
quality; whether this was due to the organization or 
to the cultivation and fertility of the land, it would be 
hard to determine from the evidence given, which 
grants merely ' 'three of the better casalia y'" 

All that can be said for the period of origin or 
development of the casalia during the two centuries 
in which they are under observation, is the fact that 
the grants begin with the year iioi, and continue 
throughout the two hundred years of the kingdom's 
existence, expressed in the same language and even in 
the same phraseology. The earliest is a grant by 
Tancred of Galilee to all the churches of Mt. Tabor, 
of certain casalia at that time destitute of inhabitants 
and uncultivated because of the recent wars.® The 
year 1107 furnishes a charter of Baldwin I. containing 
the confirmation of former gifts of casalia and adding 



^ E. Rey. Colonies Franques de Syrie, pp. 297-525. 
2 Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XXII, Ch. xx. 
^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 897. 

* Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep., Nos. 26, 84. Rohricht, Regesta, 
No. 164. 

^ Ibid., No. 113. 

• PaoH. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. CLVI. Galilee or Tiberias was 
the land across the Jordan. 



others, making a total of thirty mentioned by name 
together with an indefinite number of casalia included, 
of whose names he was ignorant.^ From this time on, 
the mention of this division. of property is common, 
not only in the gifts, sales, exchanges, rents, but also 
in the long and complete lists of holdings given by 
new monarchs in confirmation of former grants. 
Occurring as early as it does under the Crusaders' 
regime, the casale must have been some sort of a unit 
under the former holders of the land, the units or 
districts retaining even to the end of the western 
occupation their Oriental names. This supposition is 
strengthened by charters which mention them as 
having belonged up to that time to the Easterners.^ 
The fact, too, that we find early in the history of the 
period abandoned casalia adds to the support of the 
theory that they existed in some way before the arrival 
of the western Crusaders.^ Whatever the term by 
which they were designated in the east may have 
been, the thing itself must have been nearly enough 
like the casalia found in southern Italy during this 
same period to warrant the use of the term in the 
Orient. 

The casalia were therefore units of some kind existing 
in Syria from the earliest period of western occupation, 
and sometimes formed part of a villa,'' sometimes held 
apparently by themselves without forming part of a 
larger holding. Each one seems to have been a hamlet 



^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 51. 

2 Ibid., No. 51. 

' Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Josaphat, in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, p. 118. 

* The villa consisted generally of a group of casalia. See foot- 
note, p. 5. 



8 

consisting of houses, inhabitants, and the land which 
they cultivated, lying about the collection of houses. 
In many grants we have simply casalia ' ' with appur- 
tenances"; in others this form is enlarged upon, and 
we have a stereotyped * ' with their possessions in men, 
in women, in children, in cultivated land, in unculti- 
vated, in mountains, in valleys, in woods, in water, in 
pasturage, in roads," etc/ To this from other sources 
may be added vines and gardens,^ springs,^ Bedouins 
with their flocks,* towers for mutual defence;^ huts® 
and houses/ Churches too were found in the territory 
of the casale, but evidently not in it, nor considered a 
constituent part thereof/ Yet with all this, the seem- 
ingly essential things were the houses, the inhabitants 
and the land/ 

This unit could be sold as a whole ;^'' it could be 



^ Delaville le Roulx. Les Archives . . . S. Jean de Jerus., No. 
LXXXIV. 

2 Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. CX. 

^ Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, p. 123. 

^ Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep., No. 7,7,. 

^ Delaborde. Chartes . . . de Notre Dame de Josaphat, No. 
LVII. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 1026. Vantae, originally a cave, came 
to mean, huts, wretched apartments or outbuildings. 
Ibid., No. 824. 

« Ibid., No. 180. 

® There seems to have been three ways of expressing the relation 
of land and ca5a/^ in the grants : i . Casale cum carrucatis (Rohricht. 
Regesta, No. 356); 2. Carrucatae apud casale (Strehlke. Tab. ord. 
Theut., No. 43) ; 3. Carrucatae in casali (Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, 
No. CLXXVI). The difference in phraseology may have arisen 
from difference in authors, but more likely from the fact that the 
casale was thought of as a divisible unit consisting as it did of 
constituent parts. 

1° Rohricht. Regesta, No. 378. 



presented as a gift,^ a thing which often happened in 
favor of the monasteries or miHtary orders ; instead of 
a permanent gift, a grant could be made for a term 
of years; it could be exchanged;- it could be rented.^ 
In case of the sale of a casale, a part of the villani or 
part of the land was often excepted.* Sometimes even 
all the villani were retained by the person selling," a 
thing which is not found concerning the land, where a 
small portion only is retained.^ And not only were 
the land and villani bought and sold, granted and 
exchanged, but the products of the fields were disposed 
of for a term of years/ Another common division was 
that of a part of a casale, an undivided ownership. 
Sometimes one-half,^ or a quarter^ was held thus. 
Possibly the best example of this kind of holding was 
the one-third held by the Venetians, while the Templars 
held the other two parts. In one casale there were but 
two men, so it could not be a division into parts, but a 
third of the result obtained from the casale. ^'^ 

A traveler'^ in Syria in the middle of the eleventh 
century speaks of the many villages with their gardens 
and cultivated fields, and the vine, fig and olive trees 
growing about so abundantly. ^lention is made of 



^ Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, p. i66. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, Xo. 245. 

^ Ibid., Xo. 426. 

' PaoH. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, Xo. LXXVI. 

5 Ibid., Xo. XXVI. 

^ Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, p. 128. 

' Delavillele Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, Xo. 573, p. 388. 

^ Delaborde. Chartes . . . de Xotre Dame de Josaphat, Xo. 
XLI. 

8 Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut.. Xo. 89, 

^° Rohricht. Regesta, X'o. 11 14. 

^^ X^asir-i-Khtisrau in Pil. Text Soc., Vol. IV, p. >,t^. 



10 

the barley grown near Hebron, and of the many mills 
there worked by mules and oxen.^ Half a century 
later another voyager notes almost the same things, 
adding the abundance with which vegetables grow 
there and the number of sheep and other animals 
pasturing in the locality.^ With this general descrip- 
tion as a background, let us look into the minuter 
divisions and conditions of the land, omitting from 
the discussion such land as lay within towns and cities. 

The land of a casale was, when accurately described, 
given in number of ploughlands, which seem to have 
been, as was usual in so many countries, the unit of 
land. The different kinds of divisions will be taken 
up in the remainder of this chapter, and defined as 
accurately as possible with the material at hand. 

While there were carrucates or ploughlands in the 
casale,^ grants are also found of this division of land 
within the gastina;* again they are found lying apart 
from and evidently outside of any larger holding.^ 



1 Ibid., p. 57. 

^ Abbot Daniel (Russian), in Pil. Text. Soc, Vol. IV, p. 45 et seq. 

^ Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 75, "duas pecias terre, que 
sunt due carrucate . . . quas habeo ... in casali." 

* Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Jpsaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, pp. 1 17-8, ''dans la gastine de Mont. Musard une piece de 
terre, longue de douze Cannes et large de quatre, bomee de la 
fagon suivante: a parte orientis cohaeret dicta pecia terrae domi- 
bus," etc. In both of these charters, the ploughland is evi- 
dently part of a larger holding. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 269. ''Vineam in planis Bethleem 
sitam, et v terrae carrucatas continentem." Tafel-Thomas, in 
Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 381. ''Item aliam peciam terre que 
est posita iuxta fontem cum XL arboribus olivarum." Had either 
of these portions of land been included within a larger division it 
would have been more natural to have stated that fact, as is else- 
where the case, than to have defined the location. Furthermore, 
see Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 120, "que dedens ces ii dites 
charruees, qui sunt outre le ruisel, ne deit-aveir casaii ne gasUiie." 



II 

One of the most common divisions after the casale 
was the gastina. In some ways, and in certain charters, 
they seem to have been similar: they both retained 
their Oriental names ;^ they could be held as units ;^ 
rented as such or divided ;^ they were both often found 
with the inclusive ''all appurtenances";^ within were 
sometimes found small houses t villani occasionally 
resided in them;*^ ploughlands are mentioned sepa- 
rately as being part of them ;' and finally, they could 
be sold separately apparently on the same terms as 
the casalia.^ But while the casale and gastina appear 
so often to have been almost synonymous terms, only 
once are they so mentioned.® So while according to 
these views, these two divisions seem almost the same, 
and even at times interchangeable terms, yet in many 
other places the gastina is only a part, and apparently 
a well-known part, of the casale, and not co-ordinate 
with it in any way/*^ In a charter of the thirteenth 
century, we find mention of casalia and their gastinae; 
next the casalia ; and finally the gastinae alone." While 



^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 409. 

2 Ibid., No. 424- 

^ Chartes de I'abbave . . . Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 

VII. p. 147. 

* Strehlke. Tab. ord. Thevit.. No. 77. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta. No. 11S4. 

® Delaborde. Chartes . . . de Notre Dame de Josaphat, No. 
XLIII. 

' Rohricht. Regesta, No. 642. 

' Ibid., No. 347. 

" Ibid., No. 556. Quintaria vindemiae suae de territorio Bethe- 
cartas . . . et guastinae vocatur Theire latine vero casale Gaufridi 
de Portu, concedit. 

^° Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus.. Vol. XIII. p. 370. Strehlke. 
Tab. ord. Theut., Nos. 7 and 34. This latter, of the year 1198, 
reads: '■unum casale cum villanis et gastinis." 

" Ibid.. No. 117. 



12 

no definition is given nor can any definite hypothesis 
be maintained with regard to a fixed unit of any kind, 
yet since the boundaries are usually given when not 
in connection with a casale, the supposition arises that 
land must be the basis of the meaning of the word, 
probably a field of larger or smaller dimensions. To 
the strengthening of this supposition comes another 
conception of the word in a grant of a comer of a 
gastina on which a man is to build a house. ^ And 
again in another charter a certain gastina is granted 
for building houses and planting certain vines. ^ Besides 
this it was pasture-land with which it is mentioned as 
synonymous.^ The gastina seems thus to have been 
primarily land, but probably included as time went on 
w^hatever was planted or erected thereon in the way 
of grain or houses, extending this ownership even to 
the villanus of the house. In the documents of the 
west, the gastina appears in a way which gives us no 
more definite meaning than in the east." 

The campi appear to have been land of larger or 
smaller dimensions, belonging to the cities and towns, 
and lying just outside their limits. They were divided 
into gardens for fruits and trees. Tripoli had one of 
these gardens one league long and a half a league 
broad. ^ Mt. Carmel had one ten leagues long b}^ six 
broad. ^ Both of these were very fertile and productive. 

The pecia terrae differed in size, the unit being often 



^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 170. 

2 Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 128. 

^ Inv. Pieces in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. Ill, No. 215. Delaville 
le Roulx. Cart., Voh II, No. 1473. 

* Delaville le Roulx. Les Archives, No. LXIV. In Verona. 

^ Burchardus de Monte Sion, in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, 
p. 28. 

^ Ibid., p. 50. 



13 

found in the ploughland/ Although not ahvays the 
same sized piece is meant, yet often a multiple of a 
fixed unit is used. In one case the amount of land is 
that ploughed by two pairs of oxen in one day,^ in 
another the amount ploughed by three pairs. ^ A defi- 
nite amount or a multiple of a definite amount seems 
to be meant when the reading is ''una pecta," but 
when found with ' ' magna'' or ' ' quaedam,'' the amount 
was not necessarily a ploughland nor any multiple 
thereof. The use generally made of this pecia was for 
planting trees, usually the olive ;^ yet it seems also to 
have been used to designate land under cultivation for 
grain. -^ 

Very nearly like the pecia terrae, .and hardly to be 
distinguished from it, was the division known as the 
terrae, Avhose size was determined by the amount of 
land ploughed by a certain given number of pairs of 
oxen during a day. This is simply a more exact state- 
ment for the pecia terrae,^ for which it was sometimes 
used, although usually referring to land for sowing in 
place of the vines or canamella found on the pecia. '^ 

The frustum meant evidently just what is said, a bit, 
and had seemingly no definite signification as to size.^ 
So too the particula was used with no more exact 
meaning.^ 



^ Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 75, ' " duas pecie terre, que 
sunt due carrucate." 

^ Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 3S0. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 11 14. 

^ Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, pp. 3S0 and 3S1. 

5 Ibid., p. 379. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 377. Cliartes de I'abbaye . . . Josa- 
phat -z'n Rev. del'Or. Lat., Vol. VII, p. 115. 

' Rohricht. Regesta, Nos. 377 and 11 14. 

^ Ibid., No. 510. 

» Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. XVIII. 



14 

The car rue ate or ploughland, the mention of which 
we find over and over again, is simply and clearly 
shown in a grant ^ to the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, 
where the reading is : " Six ploughlands thus deter- 
mined; three . . . this side of the river . . . three 
the other side, as much as six pairs of oxen shall be 
able to plough and cultivate," etc. These ploughlands 
doubtless differed in size here as elsewhere during the 
same period, and we find mention of the Greek plough- 
land^ as distinguished from the French ploughland.^ 
Nothing is said to lead us to suspect that the scattered 
strip system, found in Europe during the same period, 
existed here. In fact quite the opposite view* could 
be maintained from a charter giving the size as twenty- 
four eordes in length by sixteen in breadth. According 
to this measurement the ploughland consisted of from 
seventy-five to one hundred acres. This seems also 
to have been the unit of land held generally by the 
villanus, the amount on which he was taxed, the amount 



^ Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep., No. 125. "Sex carrucatas terrae 
ita determinatas : tres videlicet citra flumen de Cayfa prope fon- 
tanas, et tres ultra fin em sitas supra ripas, quantum sex paria boum 
laborare et excolere poterint per omnes sationes, scilicet tres ad 
seminandum, et alias tres ad garantandum." 

2 Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Josaphat, in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, p. 152. 

^ Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 119. 

*■ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 722. In the margin of the manu- 
script is noted: Chascun charue dot havoir XXIV eordes longe et 
XVI du large, et la corde dot havoir XVIII toise du home mezaine 
et ensi le tout en la secrete du reame de Jerusalem par I'asise du 
reame devant-dit." The corde had at that time two different 
measures, one of five and one-half feet, the other six. But con- 
sidering the ' 'home mezaine" to mean an ordinary sized man, the 
measurement would probably come nearer the former than the 
latter measurement, and the result would be a piece of land about 
seventy-five acres. 



15 

from which he paid to his lord the percentage of his 
fruits and harvests/ 

The jornata^ from its very form seems to have been 
the same amount as that ploughed in one day by a pair 
of oxen. 

In the case of vineae or vineyards the amount of 
land contained therein is usually stated in plough- 
lands.^ They were often granted with the retention 
of a certain proportion of the fruit, or of a rental of a 
certain number of liters of wine." In grants per- 
mitting the planting of vineyards, stipulation was 
usually made that the receivers of the privilege must 
make good their part of the bargain in good cultivation, 
or else the agreement would become void, and the 
vines, the property of the owner of the land. On the 
other hand, permission was given at the end of the 
third year to sell the vineyard, saving any rights in 
the original bargain, to any except soldiers, sons of 
soldiers, religious houses, and men of the communes.^ 

The olivetum, so far as the land occupied by the 
trees is concerned, is often included under the pecta 
terrae, particulae, terrae, etc., but sometimes it was 
granted either by itself or as a part of a casale. Its 
size was not definitely fixed, but depended upon the 
amount given in each particular grant.® 

The mills, although not, strictly speaking, a part of 



^ Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., XIII, p. 384. 

2 Rohricht. Regesta, No. 358. 

3 Ibid., No. 258.^ 

* Cart, de S. Lazare in Arch, de I'Or. Lat., Vol. II, chartes No. 
XXI and No. XXXI. 

^ Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, pp. 140-141. Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 88. 

* Delaborde. Chartes . . . de Notre Dame de Josaphat, No. 
XXVIII. 



i6 

the land, yet occupied enough land and a conspicuous 
enough place to warrant their mention. They were 
usually near or in a city or village/ The villania men- 
tioned in several places seems to have been nothing 
more than a mill, the wording in different passages 
the same, where villania or molendinnjn could be used 
interchangeably, 2 although in one instance the molen- 
dinum seems to include the villania.^ 

The castella, castra, villae, feiidae, appear in the docu- 
ments many times, but seem always capable of being 
resolved into parts already dealt with, so need no 
separate mention. 

To the churches land was granted for cemeteries;* 
to the hospitals, churches and others were granted 
orchards and gardens.^ And not only was all the land 
granted and sold, giA^en and exchanged, but the sea- 
coast, and even the sea itself as far out to sea as a 
man could hurl a stone. ^ 

All the divisions of land mentioned above occur in 
the documents of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 
not only as simple holdings, but as parts of others; 
as a c as ale might be a part of a villa, so the pecia 
terrae, the carrucate, the vineyard, not only might be, 
but usually were parts of a c as ale. So a network of 
different size and varied pattern would be spread over 
the paper, were we to attempt to picture it on a map 



1 Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 369. 

2 Rohricht. Regesta, No. 636. Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep.. 
No. 90. 

3 Paoli. (Giunta al) Cod. Dip., Vol. I, VI, p. 284. 

* Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, p. 124. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 130. 
8 Ibid., No. 522. 



of that period. The piece or bit of land, with or 
without a house, within a gastina, which was itself 
enclosed in a casale forming part of a villa, which was 
in turn part of a fief, — all this might be so, or on the 
other hand, the small piece of land might be as inde- 
pendent as the villa or casale itself. 



CHAPTER II. 

The People. 

The peoples found in the east during these same 
centuries were varied in nationahty and differed among 
themselves in their religious tenets. From the west 
came the French, the Italians, the Germans, the 
Spaniards, the English. These men were moved, for 
the most part, by their desire for power, their religious 
zeal, or their commercial spirit. Others were doubt- 
less incited by the overcrowded conditions in the west, 
by their own individual desire to roam, or, in some 
instances, by their hope of escaping just penalties of 
the law at home.^ Besides the western Christians 
there were the Oriental Christians, for the most part 
schismatic, comprising the Syrians, Armenians and 
Greeks. One traveler ^ tells us that there were thirty 
or more of these Christians for every one Mussulman. 
Proportionately few Hebrews were foiind, none outside 
of the cities. The Moslem Saracens and Arabs with 
the wandering Bedouins seem to complete the list of 
nationalities found as dwellers in Syria. The Turks, 
Parthians, Medes, Kurds, Egyptians, are all found at 
different times under the standard of the Sultan and 
fighting for his interests. The discussion of these 
nationalities will occupy the remainder of the present 
chapter 



^ Burchard of Mt. Sion in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, 
p. 88. 

^ Ibid., p. 90. 

(18) 



19 

From all parts of France came the boldest and those 
most eager in the holy cause of the Crusade. The 
different parts of the east were seized by them with 
divided zeal for earthly power and heavenly reward. 
The smaller seigneuries also are found in their control 
as time goes on. In this way they came to found a 
certain Latin aristocracy on Syrian soil. 

Farther south, in Italy, the men took up just as 
eagerly the crusading spirit and entered with zest a 
movement which gave not only excellent chance for 
gain through booty, but also granted them a chance 
for the exercise of the commercial spirit; and so we 
find them in great numbers and force through the 
cities along the seacoast. The Pisans, Genoese and 
Venetians seem to have been skilled in war and 
dauntless at sea, which qualities undoubtedly drew 
the attention of the kings to them in time of need. 
Their reward came in exemption from general juris- 
diction, and freedom from duties on exports, which 
fostered and encouraged their native commercial 
spirit.' To these privileges were added possessions 
given by special grant from the kings. ^ As com- 
munes, they had their own courts, where all cases 
between them were tried except cases involving 
treason, murder or theft. ^ The property held was also 
held by them as a unit.'' At the head of affairs among 
the Genoese^ were the consuls and viscounts ; of the 



^ Anon. Pilgrim in Pil. Text Soc, Vol. VI, No. V, 2, p. 29. 
^ Rohricht. Regesta, Nos. 53 and 449. 

3 Ibid., No. 680; Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XII, Chap. XXV; Huillard- 
Breholles, Hist. Dip. Fred. II., Vol. Ill, pp. 131-2, 134. 
* Rohricht. Regesta, Nos. 12, 102, 585. 
^ Genes Quatre Titres m Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. II, Chartes, p. 



20 

Venetians/ the hajulus or governor; while the Pisans^ 
are mentioned as commune, senators and two consuls. 
These different men from the western cities seem to 
have lived in the eastern cities in separate segregations, 
where each held possession of a certain locality, usually 
of a street.^ In the year 1190 Guido, king of Jerusa- 
lem, granted practically the same privileges to the 
people from Amalfi." 

The Germans came early, but continually fighting, 
gained at first no foothold as did their more enter- 
prising neighbors, the French and Norman- Italians. 
Later on, however, the charters show them holding 
land and other property.^ 

The Spanish and English are mentioned as separate 
nationalities still less than the Germans.^ 

To the eastern mind all the men from the west, 
whether they came from northern Europe and repre- 
sented the war party, or whether they came from 
southern Europe and stood for peace and commerce, all 
the westerners were Franks, who ruled in turn over 
all others.^ Although the soldiers from the west were 
as a whole designated Franks, yet the eastern mind 
usually noted the difference of nationality when 
speaking of kings and those especially noted for 
bravery f and yet in one place the king of Germany 



^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 141 3. 

^ Ibid.', No. 292. 

^Rohricht. Regesta, Nos. 1331 and 1346; Wm. of Tyre, Bk. 
XII, Ch. XXV. 

Rohricht. Regesta, No. 690. 

5 Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 603. 

« Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. CCXX. 

' Wilbrand of Oldenborg in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, 
p. 172. 

^ Beha-ed-din in Rec. Or., Vol. Ill, p. 34. 



21 

is called a Frank. ^ Although the Franks, according 
to the eastern writers, took their towns and villages,^ 
and put their inhabitants to death, this boldness 
seems to have been greatly admired by the easterners, 
who speak of the Franks as most prudent warriors 
and brave. ^ 

Besides the invading and conquering westerners, the 
land was occupied by different Oriental elements which 
had been dominant in different periods of its history. 
The Syrians, who were very numerous and often men- 
tioned, were divided according to their heretical sects 
into Nestorians, Jacobites and Maronites. But there 
were also orthodox Syrians, some of whom were called 
upon to come in from the mountains to dwell in 
Jerusalem, at one time when that city became depopu- 
lated.* These men, schismatic Christians as well as 
orthodox, were used extensively for garrison duty^ and 
even trusted as messengers to carry important com- 
munications between the different parts of the Chris- 
tian army.^ It must have been for garrison duty and 
other necessary work that the Syrians as a whole were 
generally preserved after a battle, although the men 
of the other races were often killed f for some motive 
must have been necessary to have led the Franks to 
spare men, part of whom they considered weak and 
effeminate,^ and part of whom they regularly referred 



^ Vie d'Ousatna in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. II, p. 423. 

2 Mirat Ez-zeman in Rec. Or., Vol. Ill, pp. 520-4. 

^ Vie d'Ousama tn Rev. del'Or. Lat., Vol. II, pp. 344 and 393. 

' Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XI, Ch. XXVII, 

^ Gesta Franc, in Rec. Oc, III, p. 516; Sec. pars, p. 584. 

® Gesta Franc, in Rec. Oc, Vol. Ill, p. 535. 

' Fulk^n Rec. Oc, Vol. Ill, Bk. II, Ch. IV, p. 379. 

8 Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XXII, Ch. XV. 



to as "that wretched mob of Syrians."^ It is strange 
that with the tales of their treachery, not alone by the 
chroniclers, but b}^ the travelers- as well, that we 
find the Franks not only aided by these despised eastern 
men in battle, and served by them as garrison, but we 
find them worshipping imder the same roof,^ although 
not at the same altar. The Syrians had usually either 
an altar for themselves or else worshipped at a different 
hour. Nor does this intercommunication seem quite 
consistent with the character of these men given us by 
one of the writers,* who does not hesitate to call them 
all thieves and robbers. In the cities, they were 
grouped together^ in districts, as the Pisans, Genoese 
and Venetians were, and were employed as scribes,^ 
textile workers,^ gold workers,^ cobblers,^ and masons.^ 
In the country, the Syrian was found generally as the 
villamis, who was the agrarian tenant, owing to his 
lord a certain amount of money and a percentage of 
his harvest and fruits, but capable of being transferred, 
sold or granted with his ploughlands as part of the 
casale^ Although for the most part poor and sub- 
servient to the conquering Frank, yet there were some 
who seem to have either retained their wealth, or 



1 Ibid., Bk. XVIII, Ch. V. 

'■ Burcliard of Mt. Sion in Laurent. Per. Medii Aevi Qtiatuor, 
p. 89. 

2 Theodoric in Pil. Text Soc., Vol. V. pp. 13-14. 
* Jacques de Vitry in Bongars, p. 1089. 

^ In Jerusalem their section was called " "Jewry." Wm. of T^'re, 
Cont. Rec. Oc, Vol. II, p. 505. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta. No. 1242. 

"^ Ibid., No. 1114. 

^ City of Jerusalem in Pil. Text Soc, Vol. VI, pp. 6-7. 

» Rohricht. Regesta, No. 278. Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, 
No. 207, p. 160. 



23 

gained it from the Franks/ They appear also to have 
been granted the right of following their own laws 
except in quarrels involving life.^ Their court was 
presided over by one of their own number, who was 
known as the reis. The western writers throughout 
generally express contempt for the Syrians as a whole, 
yet make an exception when speaking of the Maronites. 
This sect seems to have been most numerous about 
Tripoli, where their number was estimated to be about 
forty thousand.' The Jacobites and Maronites were 
better educated, and seemingly cared more for litera- 
ture than the orthodox Syrians. They had con- 
troversies among themselves on their religious tenets. 
They both used the Chaldean letters, or something 
very close to them." Monastic houses, too, are men- 
tioned among both of these sects. ^ 

Within the boundaries of the kingdom of Jerusalem, 
the Armenians lived in the greatest numbers in Edessa 
and Antioch.® They seem to have taken as kindly to 
the invading Frank as did the Syrians, and we find 
chapels in the churches built by them for w^orship, as 
well as those built by the Syrians.^ As time went on, 
not only did they worship thus closely, but came to 
intermarry.^ Baldwin of Edessa himself married into 
the Armenian nobility.^ They also followed the 



^ Delaville le Roulx. Les Arch., No. VI. Roziere. Cart, du S. 
Sep., Nos. 6 1 and 8i. 

2 Beugnot. Lois, Vol. I, Ch. IV, p. 26. 

3 Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XXII, Ch. VIII. 

* Oliverus. Hist. Damiatina, No. 64. 

5 Wm. of Tyre, Cont. (Roth. MS.) in Rec. Oc, Vol. II, p. 507. 

^ Kamel-Altevarykh in Rec. Cr. Arm., Vol. I, p. 208. 

^ Theodoric in Pil. Text Soc, Vol. V, p. 15. 

^ Du Cange. Families d'outre Mer, pp. 105-167. 

^ Jacques de Vitry in Bongars, pp. 1089-93. 



24 

western customs and manners to a great extent, 
especially in the formal part of the government. They 
had their OAvn characters for letters, and cultivated 
literature to quite an extent, turning especially to 
history.^ In the city, too, they congregated in one 
district.^ They were employed here especially as 
butchers, bakers and carpenters.^ In war they often 
appear grouped with the Syrians and Greeks on the 
side of the Franks against the Turks and Arabs.'* In 
the country they were employed in cultivating the soil 
as villani, the same as the S^^rians.^ While the 
Armenians were apparently on the same social plane 
as the S3^rians in some places, yet in most instances 
they were regarded as far above them, in many cases 
equal to the Franks themselves. 

The Greeks were, socially speaking, lower than the 
Syrians, for we do not find them enjoying any of the 
privileges allowed the Syrians. Their number was 
probably not nearly so large as that of the Syrian, with 
whom they were used quite often in garrison duty.^ 
The old Roman opinion of their unfaithfulness and 
unreliability seems to have existed in full force in the 
minds of the western writers. '^ In city life they appear 
as masons, cobblers and watchmen.^ In coimtry life 
their names are rarely found. 

Little is known of the Georgians, a warlike race of 



^ De St. Nerses de Lampron in Rec. Cr. Arm., Vol. I, pp. 570-78. 

2 Huillard-Breholles. Hist. Dip. Fred. II., Vol. Ill, p. 127. 

3 Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, No. 648, p. 437. 
* Tudebodus in Rec. Oc, Vol. Ill, p. 44. 

» Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XVIII, Ch. XXVIII. 

^ Ge.sta Franc, in Rec. Oc, Vol., Ill, p. 516; Ibid., pars sec, p. 
584. 

' Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XVIII, Ch. XXII. 

« Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, No. 648, p. 437. 



25 

Christians heretical in their tendencies. In these they 
were, however, more nearly like the Greeks than Latins. 
They used their own alphabetical characters.^ They 
were few in number, but considered brave and strong 
in war,- and especially powerful in control over the 
Saracens. They had come into the Holy Land^ from 
Iberia, urged thither by their king in defense of that 
country.^ 

The Jews are not mentioned at all in the country 
places, but were foimd in the different cities, where they 
seem to have lived in special localities.^ In Jebail the 
Hebrew population seems to have been under the con- 
trol of seven Genoese.^ In Acre each male over fifteen 
years of age was bound to pay yearh^ one besant to 
the court of the Venetians where their trials were 
heard/ At Tyre they were employed especially in 
the manufacture of Tyrian glass, and were interested 
in commerce and trade as shipowners. In the cities 
throughout the different parts of the country they 
were busy as dyers, while at Jerusalem they had the 
exclusive right of dyeing from the king. This business 
was carried on in the Jewish quarter which was near 
the tower of David. On the whole there seems to 
have been more of this nationality in Damascus under 
the Mohammedan rule, than in Syria under the Chris- 



^ Oliverus. Hist. Damiatina, No. 63. 

^ Jacques de Vitry in Bongars, p. 1095. 

3 Rohricht. Regesta, No. 868. 

^ Potthast. Regesta, No. 4267. 

^ Delaborde. Chartes . . . de Notre Dame de Josaphat, No. 
XVII. The one great source for the Jews of this period in the 
east is Benjamin of Tudela. He gives the number found in each 
town, together with the occupations generally followed by them. 

^ Benjamin of Tudela in Wright, Early Travels in Pal., p. 79. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 11 14. 



26 

tian.^ In the early part of their stay in Jernsalem 
under the Franks there was apparently no distinction 
made against them by law, at least none seems to be 
mentioned. But in the Assizes, they were no longer 
able to hold property.^ 

It has been said that the slaves, Greeks, Syrians, 
Arabs, bore the yoke of the Latins with as much 
resignation as they had borne the yoke of the Turks. ^ 
This does not seem strange with regard to the Greeks 
and Syrians, who were orthodox or heretical Christians, 
but the Arabs and Saracens were Moslems, and not to 
be classed even with the schismatic Christians. Yet 
even from a Mussulman source* comes an account of 
the apparent prosperit}^ of the farmers, with their con- 
tinuous farms all occupied. From the receipts of these 
a portion of the harvest and a poll tax had to be paid 
to the Franks. These people had their own houses 
and claimed they were governed more justly than their 
brother Mussulmans living under their own chiefs. 
While this seems to have been the most generally 
accepted view of the people under the western con- 
querors, even by the subjugated eastern peoples, yet 
the element of security of tenure under the strangers 
seems sometimes to have interfered with the prosperity 
of the farming class. '^ To this farming class consisting, 
as w^as mentioned above, of the Syrians and Armenians, 
must be added the Saracens. Although we find the 
western men intermarrying with the Saracen women 



I 



^ Benjamin of Tudela in Wright, Early Travels in Pal., p. 78 
et seq. 

2 Beugnot. Lois, Vol. II, pp. 254-5. 

3 Ibid., Vol. I, introduction, p. XLII. 

* Ibn Djobeir m Rec. Croisades Oc., Vol. Ill, p. 44S. 
5 Chron. d'Alep in Rec. Croisades Or., Vol. Ill, p. 625. 



27 

after the latter have been baptized/ yet the feehng 
between the Saracens and Franks was by no means 
kindly. The latter looked down upon the Saracens, ^ 
while these men in turn cordially hated the Christians, 
especially the Franks,^ and never let an opportunity 
pass to fall upon their enemy, and plunder whenever 
and wherever possible. When the Christians were 
victorious, the Saracens were often slain.* The Mussul- 
mans were, however, recognized by the Franks when 
competent, for we see at Acre the Franks naming a 
Mussulman, and placing him in charge of the adminis- 
tration of the inhabitants of the coimtry about. ^ The 
Saracens were also found among the number of slaves, 
captured and made such by the fortunes of war.^ In 
the cities, although brought more closely in contact 
with each other, the feeling existing between the 
Saracen and Frank was by no means cordial. In the 
city of Jerusalem, which was considered by the Mos- 
lems as holy, since it was to this city^ their prophet 
fled, and here the last judgment was to take place, the 
Saracens for a time held possession of the keys of the 
church, and their treatment of the Christians reflected 
their feelings.^ But a cordial feeling between the 
Christian Crusader and the Mussulman is hardly to be 
expected, and we find the antipathy based rather on 
belief in their dogmas than on any qualities pos- 



1 Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, XXV; Fulk in Rec. Croisades Oc, 
Vol. Ill, p. 468. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 635. 

^ Ricoldus in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, p. 123. 

* Fulk^n Rec. Croisades Oc., Vol. Ill, Bk. II, Ch. IV. p. 379. 

'" Ibn Djobeir zw Rec. Croisades Or., Vol. Ill, p. 449. 

« Ibid., p. 454. 

^ Beha-ed-din t:n Rec. Croisades Or., Vol. Ill, p. 275. 

8 SS. Epist., Saeculi XIII, Vol. I, No. 390. 



28 

sessed by either of them. The fact that both sources 
testify to the good quaHties of the other, even grudg- 
ingly and scantily, seems to lead to this supposition. 

The Assassini seem to have been a branch of the 
Saracens who dwelt in castles and fortresses in the 
mountains;^ although they cherished and carefully 
followed the laws and traditions of the Saracens in 
many respects, they acknowledged neither Mohammed 
nor Christ. 2 By one writer their number was estimated 
at forty thousand fighting men. These men do not 
seem to have acknowledged an hereditary leader, but 
to have chosen one of their own men to lead them, 
whom they called ''the old man of the mountains."^ 
For a time they seem to have been tributary to the 
Templars." 

The Arab Mussulmans had an extensive and wide- 
spread civilization, interested in things intellectual and 
philanthropic al. Their names are mentioned as law- 
yers, magistrates, judges; grammarians, historians, 
lexicographers; doctors and surgeons; masons and 
carpenters; butchers and stonecutters.^ 

The wandering Arabs or Bedouins seem to have 
been divided into two classes. One consisted of the 
inhabitants of the desert, who were considered espe- 
cially ugly, and described as blacker than soot. They 
lived on milk from their herds, and in rainv weather 



^ Wm. of Tyre, cont. in Rec. Oc, Vol. II, p. 523. 

2 Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XX, Ch. XXIX. Wm. of Tyre, cont. Rec. 
Oc, Vol. II, pp. 523 and 530. 

3 Burchard of Mt. Sion in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quattior. p. 90. 
Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XX, Ch. XXIX, says 60,000. 

' Oliverus. Hist. Ter. Sanct., No. 63. 

^ Makrisi in Quatremere, Vol. I, Pt. I, p. 229; Vol.' I, Pt. I, 
pp. 221-224, 244, 247; Vol. I, Pt. II, pp. 6, 7, 33; Vol. II, Pt. II, 
pp. 81-2. 



29 

wore unsightly coarse hair peHsses/ Countless in 
number and dauntless in war, they armed themselves 
with bow, quiver and round shield/ The second kind 
must have been a little more civilized, or a little less 
savage, than the other. They were used in casalia 
and looked upon as part of their property. These men 
appear to have lived in tents, moving about for new 
pastures for their flocks. They too were warlike, but 
carried swords and shields, and not arrows.^ The 
earliest notice in the year 1143 gives nothing except 
the bare fact that Avith a certain casale, lands, villani, 
Bedouins and their heirs were transferred.^ In the 
year 1160 Baldwin III. granted to the Hospital of 
St. John fifty tents of the Bedouins, which, the grant 
states, must never have served the king or his predeces- 
sors, but which the holder of the casale himself may be 
able to gain in any way.* In the same year there was a 
grant by the same king to Philip of Naplouse of certain 
things, reserving, however, all his Bedouins who were 
not bom in the land of I\It. Regal, and reserving also 
all the caravans which pass through the parts of Alex- 
andria and Egypt to Damascus, as well as those 
passing the other way.' These two last grants seem 
to point to the origin of these bands as being originally 
captured by men who were granted rights of retaining 
them. Thus the conquerors came into possession not 
only of booty, but of men together with the herds of 
animals which they drove. But, although the viscount 



^ Joinville. Louis IX. in Bouquet. Rec. des Hist, des Gaules, 
Vol. XX, p. 230. 

^ Burchard of Mt. Sion in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, p. 89. 
^ Beugnot. Lois, Vol. II, p. 507, Chartes, etc., No. 26. 
' Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, XXXVI. 
^ Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 3. 



30 

of Naplouse seemed to be shut out from participation 
in the Bedouin trade, the year 1178 shows a sale by 
Amalricus, its viscount, of one hundred and three tents 
of these men, to the Hospital of St. John at Jerusalem. 
The sale was concluded for five thousand five hundred 
besants, including the Bedouins, their families and all 
their possessions/ Again in the year 1180, the king 
granted to the Hospital of St. John one hundred tents 
of Bedouins at Bellumvidere (a casale) , "all who had 
never been under the power of the king nor his father. "^ 
As we alwa^^s find them transferred in bands, and no 
account taken of them individually, as they were dis- 
tinctly a grazing people, and did not till the soil, the 
inference arises that they did not rank as high socially 
or intellectuall}'- as the agrarian laborers, the Syrians, 
Armenians and Saracens. So we find them not so 
much villani as lower dependents in the life of the 
casale. 

Besides the ^loslems, there were found in the armies 
of the east the Parthians, who were employed as 
bowmen,^ Arabs, Medes, Kurds, Egyptians, soldiers 
from Damascus and Bagdad; but those most men- 
tioned, and whom the eastern people seemed to dislike 



^ Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, LXV; also in Rohricht, Regesta, 
No. 562. The tribe of Benecarguas was divided into nine different 
tribes: Benicelge, lo tents; Hahassen, 21 tents; Marahab, 5 tents; 
Bedre, 11 tents; Lahargerse, 7 tents (only five are given here, but 
two are given at end as being white and belonging to this tribe) ; 
Beilfbzle, 14 tents; Mathar, 12 tents; Serif, 11 tents; Solta, 12 
tents; in all, 103 tents. The "tent" probably represents the 
' ' house " of the more civilized nations, and the tentholders represent 
householders or men representing families. 

2 Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, No. 582, p. 395. 

3 Ricardus Canonicus. I tin. Rich, in R. S., Vol. 38, i, Bk. I, 
Ch. LVII. 



31 

as much as did the western, were the Turks/ Although 
these men were considered detestable, greedy, treach- 
erous,^ yet their valor in w^ar commanded the respect 
of the Franks, Avho sighed because these warriors were 
not of the right faith, since the Crusaders felt had the 
Turks only been Christians they would not have had 
their superiors in the world. ^ AVith equal respect evi- 
dently did the Turks view the Franks, considering that 
they must be of the same race, and that no one ought 
to be a soldier except the Frank and the Turk.* They 
were a wild race of people, wandering about, seeking 
to enrich themselves by robbery and theft. ° In war 
they served as cavalry and were especially skilful with 
the bow. When in battle they were arranged in 
phalanxes with standards and banners, and accom- 
panied by the usual trumpets and horns.* 

The Ishmaelites, although despised by the Crusaders, 
seem nevertheless to have been warlike, and killed 
many of the western enemy.'' For a time they paid 
tribute to the Hospital at Tyre, but this ceased in the 
year 1^66 by a treaty between the Hospitallers and 
the Sultan.' 

The Kurds, found under the standard of the eastern 
army, were, according to an eastern account, good, 
religious, naturally inclined to virtue and good works." 



' Ibid. 

^ Fulk w Rec. Croisades Oc, Vol. Ill, pp. 392, 421. 

^ Ricardus Canonicus. Itin. Rich. I. in R. S., Vol. 38, i, Bk. 
Ill, Ch. XV. 

* Ttidebodus Imit. in Rec. Oc, Vol. Ill, p. 183. 

^ Ricardus Canonicus. Itin. Rich. I. in R. S., Vol. ^S, i, Bk. II 
Ch. XXIII. 

«Ibid.,Bk. IV, Ch. XVIII. 

^ Rec. Croisades Grecs, Vol. I, Pt. I, p. 5; Pt. II, p. 8. 

^ Makrisi in Quatremere, Vol. I, Pt. II, pp. 40 and 42 

8 Ibid., Vol. I, Pt. I, p. 166. footnote. 



32 

Like the Arabs they founded colleges, built mosques 
and encouraged education. In the army, men of the 
rank of emirs possessed military benefices. Ten men 
of this class preceded the Sultan on foot.^ The lan- 
guage used by them was Kurd, Arabic, or a mixture of 
the two. 2 

Thus in the Syria of the Crusaders, the peoples were 
mixed and varied. As time went on, intermarriages 
took place between the different nationalities, especially 
the Franks and Armenians, and the Franks and Sara- 
cens. The Pullani were the result of intermarriage, 
but it is not certain between which races. ^ It is not 
to be supposed, however, because marriages between 
the different races are not specifically mentioned that 
they did not take place, since people living together 
in one land, growing gradually together in customs, 
having many laws in common, would come in time to 
intermarry.* 

The slaves of the country were either bought as such 
and brought into the country, or being taken as pris- 
oners in war, were reduced to the rank of slaves. The 
men thus taken were apportioned out to the victors, 
and by them sold, exchanged, or granted to religious 
orders.^ 

The women of Nubia were especially beautiful, and 
commanded high prices.^ The slaves who became 
Christians were usually manumitted."^ 



1 Ibid., Vol. I, Pt. I, p. 137, footnote. 

2 Ibid., Vol. I, Pt. I, p. 166, footnote. 

2 Jacques de Vitry in Bongars, p. 1086. Rec. Crois. Grecs, Vol. 
II, p. 41- 

* Fulk^i Rec. Oc, Vol. Ill, p. 46S. Du Cange, Families d'outre- 
Mer, pp. 105-167. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 397. 

^ Edrisi. Geographic, Vol. I, pp. 25-26. 

' Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, CCXXII, XLVIII. 



33 

A word might be said possibly as to the appearance 
of these people. The peasants were for the most part 
wretchedly clad in a single garment or shirt called the 
kisa.^ The Syrians were distinguished from the Sara- 
cens by a woolen belt.- The Syrians of rank a grade 
higher Avore a long covering of linen or silk, called the 
ridd, the wealthy having this embroidered.^ They 
had also heavy cloaks for rain, made of wool, called 
mimtar.^ The villagers and scribes also wore a woolen 
vest called diirraah} The people of the laAv v\^ere 
distinguished by the great turbans Avhich they wore.* 
On account of the heat all Avore something on their 
heads, and the color of the turban AA^as the distinctiA^e 
mark of the different races, sects and orders. Thus 
the Sadducees wore a gray head-dress interAvoAxn AA^th 
red, Avhile the Greeks could be distinguished by their 
black turbans.'' The Christians wore blue turbans; 
the JcAvs, yellow; the Samaritans, red.^ The cloth 
used for this turban Avas tAA'Cnty ells long.** Not only 
in civil life Avas color used as a mark of distinction 
betAA^een the nationalities, but in the army the men 
were distinguished by a differently colored and dif- 
ferently decorated garment known as the khilah}'^ The 
Bedouins wore an ample garment presumably of cotton 



^ Mukaddasi in LeStrange, Pal. under the Moslems, p. 22. 
- Burchard of Mt. Sion in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, p. 89. 
^ Mukaddasi in Le Strange, Pal. under the Moslems, p. 22. 
Ludolphus of Sudheim in Arch, de I'Or. Lat., Vol. II, Chartes, p. 

364- 

* Mukaddasi in LeStrange, Pal. under the Moslems, p. 22. 
» Ibid. 

^ Makrisi in Quatremere, Vol. I, Pt. i, p. 244, note. 

^ Ludolphus of Sudheim w Rev. de I'Or. Lat.. Vol. II, pp. 364-5. 

* Makrisi in Quatremere, Vol. II, Pt. 2, p. 180. 

^ Ludolphus of Sudheim in Arch, de I'Or. Lat., Vol. II, p. 364. 
^'^ Makrisi in Quatremere, Vol. II, Pt. 2, p. 72 et seq., footnote. 



34 

or linen over a red shirt/ When we take into con- 
sideration all these different costumes and add thereto 
the less striking dress of the western Crusader and the 
costume of the men of the various religious orders, 
the effect must have been picturesque, and we see 
that the garments, as well as the people in the Holy 
Land during this period, were varied. 



^ Burchard of Mt. Sion in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Qtiatuor,-p. 90. 



CHAPTER III. 
The Land and the People. . 

The lordship of the land was held for the most part 
by the Franks, during their period of domination in 
Syria, as it had been by the successive conquerors in 
the years before that time. The most daring of the 
westerners carved out their ow^n fortunes, and wrenched 
the property from the unfortunate eastern holders. 
Later the king, as a reward to his faithful followers 
from the west, granted larger or smaller tracts, accord- 
ing to the deserts or power of the lord. As time went 
on, monasteries, churches, and hospitals, as well as the 
king and powerful lords, came into possession of land 
through gift, sale, exchange, or perpetual rent.^ AVhile 
the men from the west were the main landlords, yet 
mention is made of Arabs and Syrians as such.^ 

The men who held the casalta, as fiefs, made various 
returns to their overlords. These overlords w^ere 
usually the king, or those who were almost his equals 
in the kingdom of Jerusalem, the holders of the great 
baronies, and the religious orders. One very common 
return was that of military service, given either for 
regular or special duty, whenever the war with the 
Saracens threatened.^ A second kind of return con- 
sisted in a money payment made each year.* Some- 
times this seems to have been a payment in proportion 



^ Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 112. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 299. Cart, de S. Laz. in Arch, de I'Or. 
Lat., Vol. II, Chartes, p. 124. Strehlke, Tab. ord. Theut., No. 128. 
3 Ibid., Nos. 4 and 10. Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. CXXVIII. 
* Inv. de Pieces iJt Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. Ill, Nos. 173 and 310. 

(35) 



36 

to the number of ploughlands cultivated, and from 
which returns were obtainable.^ The third, and pos- 
sibly the most common method of payment, was the 
return of a percentage of the crops, not only of wheat 
and barley, but also from the vines and trees. ^ If 
payment ceased, the land reverted to the lord, who 
had the right to lease to some one else.^ 

Beside these payments to the overlords, these same 
landlords had one great tax which must have been 
burdensome to them, and that was the tithe to the 
church. This latter institution in the kingdom of 
Jerusalem seemed desirous of showing her entire power 
in this country, which she considered peculiarly her 
own, as well as of obtaining all the wealth possible 
for the maintenance of that power. And so, numerous 
are the charters found, granting these tithes, con- 
firming those already granted, as well as others 
regranting parts of these tithes by the church to 
others. This percentage for the church seems to have 
been levied on everything possible, as for instance, on 
vines and trees, goats and bees. Even on the poll tax 
of the vtllani, the lord paid his tenth to the church, 
as well as on the oil of his vtllani. On his own oil, too, 
he was obliged to give his tithe.* And the carrying of 
all this, when it consisted of produce, must also be 
done by the lord who owed it, and not by the church. 
When the church itself held the c as alia, and the 
monks performed the labor in place of the villani,^ 



1 Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. 11, No. 2934. p. SSi. 

2 Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep., No. 81. 

^ Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, p. 181. 

* Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 112. 

^ Ibid., No. 112. Chartes de I'abbaye . . . de Josaphat in Rev. 
de rOr. Lat., Vol. VII, p. 124. 



37 

the same proportion was sometimes demanded, while 
in other cases pa3^ment of tithes from the work of the 
monks was forbidden.^ Exemption from these tithes 
was granted by the church to the Hospital, and to a 
few others.^ 

The overlords also granted to these landlords mills 
for grinding the grain raised in the district where the 
mill was situated. Two kinds of mills are mentioned, 
those run by water, ^ and those by horse power/ 
These mills also differed in size, some having one, 
some two, some three stones for grinding.^ They do 
not seem to have belonged to the casalia, although 
sometimes found in connection with them.^ Usually, 
however, they were located at sonle suitable place 
near a stream, or in the cities or villages. The right 
to have a mil? seems to have been a grant, the same 
as a casale, and the right of grinding the grain at a 
certain place was also given by the same man.^ 

The sugar mills, too, seem to have been held by this 
same class of landlords, who made returns to their 
overlords in produce or money. In one instance the 
return from one mill was one-half a qnintalef in 
another it consisted of one-fifteenth of the value of the 
returns from the sugar as estimated by ''good men," 



1 Ibid., p. 138. 

^ Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, No. 202, p. 155. 
^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 665. 

^ Chartes de I'abbaye . . . de Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., 
Vol. VII, p. 166. 

5 Paoli. (Giufita al) Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. VI. Rohricht. 
Regesta, No. 11 14. 

6 Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. i. 

' Paoli. St. Giambattista, Pt. IV, No. II. 

^ Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. I. No. 225, p. 172. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 425. 



38 

but paid in wheat and barley.' In one case, which 
seems rather unusual, the entire products of the mill, 
together with the right of seUing the refined sugar 
freely in Acre, was granted by the king without 
recompense." 

The ovens which we find mentioned in the charters 
are distinguished from the casalia as were the mills. 
These seem again to have been a special grant or 
included in a larger one, but not belonging necessarily 
to the casalia.^ The landlords who held these ovens 
returned a percentage of the bakings to their overlords. 
So in a charter of the twelfth century, every fifteenth 
loaf of bread baked for the inhabitants of the casale 
by the holders, was returned to the king, and every 
tenth loaf from those not of the casale, who brought 
bread to this same oven to be baked.* Sometimes 
exemption from this percentage was granted.^ 

The landlords, who thus paid a percentage on their 
holdings, do not seem to have lived on the casalia, 
since we find no mention of manor houses. So, too, 
there is a corresponding lack of mention of demesne 
land, so usual in the western charters.^ Not only 
negative supposition from silence concerning demesne 
land, but positive proof of this lack is found in the 
charters where a certain number of ploughlands are 
mentioned as belonging to a casale, followed by a list 



^ Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 112. 

2 Ibid., No. 18. 

3 Delavillele Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, No. 484, p. t,^,^,. 
* Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. i. 

■' Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep., No. 92. 

^ The ''common" of the lord (commune domini) was probably 
the demesne land, but mentioned very seldom, and with hardly 
the same signification which it had in the west. DelaA^lle le Roulx, 
Cart., Vol. I, No. 480, p. 330. 



39 

of the villani holding these, and showing no land left 
over for the lord/ 

But the lord, although not present in person on the 
casale, yet had his representative, called the prae- 
posttus casalis, caput casalis, or gastaldio.^ It was his 
duty to see that the proper returns in kind and specie 
were made to the lord, and for his management he 
was rewarded by an extra holding.' This man was 
evidentty chosen in accordance with his fitness for the 
work, and not selected from any especial race. In the 
case of a holding of the Teutonic Order, the overseer 
was one of their own number, whom they called 
' ' hajiiliis y "^ In another case the overseer was a 
Moslem, Avho showed the hospitality of the casale to 
the people of a passing caravan, inviting them to 
dinner, and lodging them afterwards in a small gallery 
in his house. ^ This overseer, by whatever title called, 
must have been the most important man in the little 
hamlet, made such by representing there the power of 
the lord, as Avell as by the dignity of station resulting 
from the extra holding. 

To the inhabitants of the casale two names are 
applied with apparently no distinction in meaning, 
villani and rnstici. If any distinction whatever is to 
be discerned, it might possibly be that the villani could 
apply not only to S^^rians, Saracens, Armenians, but 
also to Franks of that rank as well, while rnstici would 
apply only to the natives, with which word rnstici is 
sometimes found. 



^ Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 384. 

2 Ibid., pp. 371, 380. 

3 Ibid., p. 384. 

* Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 89. 

^ Ibn Djobeir in Rec. Croisades Or.. Vol. Ill, p. 449. 



40 

The homoliges formed a separate class of riistici. 
They were not found on all of the c as alia, nor was their 
proportion to the villani and the number of plough- 
lands the same. In a c as ale of fourteen ploughlands, 
there were five homoliges; in another of ten plough- 
lands there were six/ Just what was their status, or 
why they were called liege men, the charters give us 
no means to decide. But in the Assizes of Jerusalem, ^ 
we find that in each seigneury the lord must hold court 
with three liege men. So that although they were not 
to be found on every casale, yet there would be a 
sufficient number for the holding of the assizes in the 
district where the court must convene. So it is pos- 
sible that their duties were legal. These men are 
called rustici and show their origin in their Oriental 
names. ^ If their duties were legal, this and the fact 
that they were of eastern origin would help to bear 
out the truth of the statement met with so often, that 
the men were ruled by the laws of the nation to which 
they belonged and tried in similar courts." 

Although for the most part the inhabitants of the 
casalia were easterners, yet western names as well are 
found occasionally.^ In one instance^ land was granted 
within a casale to certain western men, for the purpose 
of erecting houses. No rent was to be charged on the 
houses thus built nor on the land, but only the usual 
percentage of fruits and crops from the land under 
cultivation. The charter reads as though the things 



1 Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 378. 

2 Beugnot. Lois, Vol. I, No. CCLIII, p. 405. 

^ Tafel-Thomas ^'w Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 376. 

■* Beugnot. Lois, Vol. I, introduction. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 281. 

* Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep., No. 136. 



41 

offered were to be considered in the light of special 
inducements for the men to settle there. But whether 
this was because of their desirability as tenants because 
they were Franks, or because of their individual 
qualities, would be hard to determine from the charter 
itself. But from the fact that so many easterners 
cultivated the land in a manner apparently satisfactory 
to their lords, the probability seems to rest with per- 
sonal excellence rather than race. 

Usually this peasant class come before us in the 
charters as cultivators of vineyards^ and olive groves, 
and laborers on the cultivated land.^ In the time of 
need they became soldiers.^ Some of them apparently 
had wealth enough to call for special notice.* Occa- 
sionally they appear to act as a body in an attempt 
to gain a point which would be advantageous to them 
as a whole. ^ 

The villani living in a casale usually cultivated the 
land belonging to that casale and lying adjacent to it. 
In some cases this grew into a law forbidding any 
peasant to depart to another casale,^ and so we find 
the courts of the different lords taking the matter up, 
and laws between the different parts of the kingdom 
came into existence for the return of fugitive villani^ 
Yet in spite of these laws we find constant mention in 
the charters of certain peasants being retained from 



^ Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 381 et seq. 
^ Ricardus Canonicus. Itin. Rich. I. in R. S., Vol. 38, i, Bk. I, 
Ch. XVIII . 

^ Villehardouin. Conquete, etc., Vol. II, p. 410. 

* Rohricht. Regesta, No. 57. 

^ Delaborde. Chartes de Notre Dame . . . de Josaphat, No. 
XXVI. 

* QuatreTitresiti Arch, del 'Or. Lat., Vol. II, Chartes . . . , p. 228. 
' Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. LXXVII. 



42 

a casale at the time of its change of holders. And not 
only this, but they were deliberately transferred to 
other casalia of the lord, or even dismissed.^ So, too, 
rarely they are found living in one casale, and culti- 
vating the fields belonging to another. ^ 

The men who held the casalia from the king, the 
powerful barons, or the great religious orders, as was 
stated above, probabty did not reside on them. The 
money and produce with which they paid the king or 
other overlord for their holdings, they in turn extracted 
from the real cultivators of the soil. The most normal 
holding for these cultivators seems to have been one 
ploughland each,^ and the most usual sort of payment 
for this was a percentage on the crop raised. The 
returns from the different products differed slightly in 
the different casalia, or in the holdings from different 
overlords. In the case of the returns from the vines, 
the percentage was quite often one-half,* yet from 
others held by the Venetian commune, the return was 
one-third.^ In another case, a quarter was demanded." 
In still another a modest seventh only Avas asked. '^ 
Grants also to plant vines, Avhich would in the future 
yield a certain per cent, AA^ere not uncommon.^ Vines 
were AAddely cultiA^ated for aa^ucs during the Prankish 
occupation of the land, and AA^ere apparently abundant 



^ Strelilke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 83; and Rohricht, Regesta, 
No. 121. 

- Ibid., No. 859. 

^ Beug'Dot. Lois, Vol. II, p. 510, Chartes, No. 28. 

* Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep., No. 81. Rohricht, Regesta, No. 269. 

'" Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 374. 

" Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, No. 491, p. 337. 

' Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. i. 
Chartes de I'abbaye . . . de Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., 
Vol. VII, p. 140. 



43 

throughout the entire kingdom/ The usual vintage 
was in the fall,^ but one of the travelers gives an 
account of one place where by careful training, not one 
but three vintages were obtained.^ 

About the same percentage was received from the 
peasants also on the fruits* and olives. From fifteen 
to twenty olive trees were planted on a piece of land 
of a size ploughed by a pair of oxen in one day.' 

Canamella, or sugar cane, also paid the usual one- 
third from the cultivators.^ This cane is described by 
a traveler as larger than the common cane,'' and 
evidently required for its cultivation a very moist soil.^ 
It w^as planted in the fall. When ready for the mill 
it was porous, containing within its tubelike stem a 
moist substance. The cane after being cut in pieces 
was ground in the mill; the semifluid expressed from 
it was boiled doAvn and poured into receptacles. This 
was known as honey; the residue was dried and 
became sugar. ^ The one-third mentioned above w^as 
probably on the cane as it stood in the field, and not 
on the refined honey or sugar. 

The land under cultivation for grain paid a certain 
amount from each ploughland of the villaniis to his 
lord, rather than a varying percentage, as was the 
case with the vines and trees. The usual tax seems 



^ Burchard of Mt. Sion in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, 
PP- 34, 39. 45. 88, etc. 

2 Baldric of Dole in Rec. Oc, Vol. IV, Ch. VI, p. 94. 

^ Burchard of Mt. Sioni'n Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, p. 88. 

* Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep., No. 81. 

5 Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII. p. 380. 

^ Ibid., p. 369. 

' Burchard of Mt. Sion in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, p. 87. 

^ Ludolphus of Sudheim in Rev. I'Or. Lat., Vol. II, p. 365. 

^ Burchard of Mt. Sion in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, p. 88. 



44 

to have been a modius of wheat and one of barley, 
besides two manipuli of each at the harvest time.^ 
The lord furnished the seed for the sowing, and in 
return for this the peasants returned one chicken for 
each ploughland.2 

Money was also accepted in lieu of remittances in 
kind, but was not nearly so common as a portion of 
the crops. Sometimes this payment was a regular 
fixed sum, again it appears as dependent upon the 
crop of the year.^ The "free" ploughland, of which 
we find occasional mention in the charters, seems to 
have been free from the returns of produce by the 
laborers, requiring evidently a money payment rather 
than a payment in kind/ 

One duty resting upon the casale as a whole was the 
providing of refreshment for the king or lord, with his 
attendants, if they came through the hamlet.' 

The personal service in the field, which is met with 
so constantly in the west, appears in the east with 
little prominence. It is probable that the absence of 
the lord from the casale, the lack of demesne land, 
the fact that, to a great extent, products for export, 
and not for immediate home consumption, were culti- 
vated here — all of these things help to account for the 
small amount of personal service required. When 
found it is usually in connection with the rustici 
holding directly from the king, or those on land held 
by the Venetian Commune, where the amount of labor 



^ Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, No. 480, p. 330. 

2 Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 374. 

^ Chartes de I'abbaye . . . Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. 
VII, p. 121. 

^ Rohricht. Regesta, No. 615, " besantionim quos de liberis 
carrucis rex accipere solet." 

5 Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. I, No. 480, p. 331, 



45 

demanded seems to have been one day per year/ In 
what this service consisted we are not told, yet in 
some instances it appears as though it might have 
been, not work in the fields, but in fishing. ^ Even 
without direct evidence, when we find grants of five 
hundred pounds of fish and one thousand eels given 
to the abbey from the lord's fish pond,^ the supposition 
natural^ arises that these fishes were probably caught 
by the villani of that lord. The villani are also found 
w^orking in the sugar mills.* In the case of the one- 
third of the cane demanded by one lord, if the sup- 
position is correct that it represented the unrefined 
cane, then the holder may have had a mill for the 
refining of this, where his villani could have worked 
for him.^ Besides these payments in produce and 
labor, there was also a poll tax collected by the lord 
from his peasants.^ 

The service of a scribe and a translator is found also 
as a service distinct from any use in the west. They 
seem to be distinctly different persons, the latter giving 
the translated customs to the casale from the Prankish 
landlord.' 

Besides the other payments demanded from the 
peasant, he too came in for his share of the tithes to 
the church.^ The carrying of this produce was also 



^ Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 375. 
^ Ibid., and Roziere, Cart, du S. Sep., No. 124. 
^ Delaborde. Chartes . . . de Notre Dame de Josaphat, No. IV, 
Delaville le Roulx. Cart., Vol. II, p. 911; app. No. XXII. 

4 Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 34. 

5 Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 369. 
" Rohricht. Regesta, No. 118. 

'Ibid., No. 545. Strehlke, Tab. ord. Theut., No. 16. Delaville 
le Roulx, Cart., Vol. I, No. 480, p. 330. 

^ In a charter of 1198 of Amalricus, king of Jerusalem, to the 



46 

done by the villani, and not by the receivers of the 
goods. ^ Sometimes a loaf of bread was given to the 
villanus who brought his tithe. ^ 

Special gifts were also offered by the peasants to 
their lords. On three stated days, Christmas, Septua- 
gesima Sunday and Easter, for each ploughland- held, 
the peasant returned one chicken, ten eggs, half a roll 
of fresh cheese, together with twelve besants for a 
salma of wood.^ 

The houses of the casale seem to have been congre- 
gated together, probably in the center of the land com- 
prising the casale, and were doubtless transferred from 
holder to holder when certain lands of the casale were 
transferred.'' Little mention is made of the accommo- 
dations for the common people, except in case of the 
Bedouins, who are always mentioned as dwelling in 
tents. ^ But since the travelers tell us that they are 
wretchedly clad, we can easily imagine that their 
homes were, for the most part, poor and miserable.^ 

In the cultivated land there seems to have been a 



Hospital at Jerusalem, Ave find the king granting from each villanus 
laboring in the sugar mill, one roll of sugar each year; from each 
ploughland of cultivated land, one clicha of wheat, and one of 
barley; from each hundred goats wintering in his land, five car- 
ruhlae from each villanus; for every ten goats for which the king 
ought to have ten carruhlae, the Hospital to have annually two 
on the part of each peasant; and finally from every ploughland 
yielding the lord two besants, the Hospital vras to receive three 
carruhlae from each peasant. Strehlke, Tab. ord. Theut., No. 34. 
Ibid., No. 112. Paoh, Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. XCVII. 

1 Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 15. 

^ Ibid., No. 112. 

•■' Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, pp. 371, 372, 
374. 381- 

^ Inv. de Pieces in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., Vol. Ill, No. 223. 

^ Burchard of Mt. Sion in Laurent, Per. Med. Aevi Quatuor, p. 89. 

« Ibid. 



47 

succession of crops. The land sowed this year with 
wheat or barley would next year produce beans and 
peas. Nine modii of wheat or barley could be sowed 
in each ploughland, and the next year one modiits of 
beans and peas could be planted in the same amount of 
ground.-^ The grain thus sowed was ready for cutting 
in April. 2 The raising of grain was by no means 
restricted to the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, since 
wheat and barley had been grown under the olive trees 
there before the advent of the western Crusaders.^ 

Early in the twelfth century the king granted to the 
men of all nations, the Syrian as well as the Christian, 
the privilege of carrying grains and other produce into 
the city of Jerusalem without taxation.* So these men 
were early allowed to carry their produce freely to the 
markets. Besides the amount of grain sold by the 
peasants there must have been some withheld for the 
use of themselves and their families. The bread used 
by the inhabitants of the casale was doubtless baked 
in the primitive ovens which they dug in the ground. 
"These," says a writer^ of the tenth century, "are 
small and used for baking bread . . . they line them 
with pebbles, and kindling the fire of dried dung, 
within and above, they afterwards remove the hot 



1 Tafel-Thomas in Fon. Rer. Aus., Vol. XIII, p. 374. 

2 Baldric of Dole m Rec. Oc, Vol. IV, p. 94. 
^ Gesta Franc, in Rec. Oc, Vol. Ill, p. 507. 

*Wm. of Tyre, Bk. XII, Ch. XV. Roziere, Cart, du S. Sep., 
No. 45. 

^ Mukaddasi in LeStrange, Pal. under the Moslems, p. 23. In a 
charter for 1 1 7 7 two casalia were granted for furnishing white 
bread to the monks. But the actual baking is not here required, 
only the grain from the two casalia, for if this wheat proved unsat- 
isfactory it was to be exchanged measure for measure for good 
grain from the granary of the Hospital. Delaville le Roulx, Les 
Arch., No. XXXVIII. 



48 

ashes and place the loaves of bread to bake upon these 
pebbles, when they have become thus red-hot." 

The Bedouins were the most usual guardians of the 
flocks, which were in some cases large, consisting of 
camels, cattle, sheep and goats. ^ The villani, aside 
from the Bedouins, as a whole did not keep large 
flocks, but those which we find mentioned seem to 
have been pastured in their gardens and fields, and in 
the common wood, where there was apparently no tax 
for their maintenance. - 

In the case of meadow land, the hay resulting from 
it was to be cut by the lord holding the land, payment 
of one-half of the hay was to be given to the overlord.^ 
In this transaction the peasants seem to have had no 
share. Their lack of possession of meadow land and 
ha}^ can be attributed in the east to the climate, where 
hay was scarcely necessary, since the flocks could 
easily find food all winter directly from the land. So 
too the fishery rights appear to have been granted by 
the kings and barons to the men holding from them.* 
Oftentimes this included a right to have a boat on the 
stream or lake.^ These rights too seem not to have 
been, so far as can be seen from the charters, extended 
to the peasants. Salt, too, which must have been 
found in the land, is sometimes required in part pay- 
ment for a holding.^ Once another grant comes up in 



^ Albertus Aquensis XII, Ch. XXXI (p. 710 in Rec. Cr. Oc. 
Vol. IV). 

2 Chartes . . . de DampieiTe i)i Arch, de I'Or. Lat.. Vol. II. 
Chartes, p. 192. 

^ Ibid., p. 203. 

* Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. XXIII. 

5 Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 9. 

^ Chartes de I'abbaye . . . de Josaphat in Rev. de I'Or. Lat., 
Vol. VII, p. 116. 



49 

the charters, this time exclusively for the peasant 
class — the right of collecting from the shores of the 
Dead Sea the bitumen, called by them cathrans, found 
there/ 

The value of the products from the territory occupied 
in the east by the Franks was by no means equal in all 
parts. The vines near Jerusalem were noted, ^ and 
here abounded also olive trees and figs. In Hebron 
barley, which had been rare in that district before the 
arrival of the Crusaders,^ became common as well as 
the wheat.* The fullest accotint of the products of 
the land is given by an Arab writer, a century previous 
to the time of the occupation of the land by the Franks. 
'* Unequaled," said he,^ ''is this land of Syria for its 
dried figs, its common olive oil, its white bread and the 
Ramleh veils ; also for the quinces, the pine-nuts called 
' Kuraish-bite,' the 'Ainuni and Dun raisins, the Theri- 
ack-antidote, the herb of mint, and the rosaries of 
Jerusalem. And further know that within the prov- 
ince of Palestine may be found gathered together six- 
and-thirty products that are not found thus united in 
any other land. Of these the first seven are found in 
Palestine alone ; the following seven are very rare 
in other countries ; and the remaining two-and-twenty, 
though only found thus gathered in this province, are, 
for the most part, found one and another, singly, in 
other lands. Now the first seven are the pine-nuts, 
called 'Kuraish-bite,' the quince or Cydonian apple, 
the 'Ainuni and the Duri raisins, the Kafuri plum, the 



^ Roziere. Cart, du S. Sep., No. 33. 

2 Abbot Daniel in Pil. Text Soc., Vol. IV, p. 26. 

^ Nasir-i-Khusrau, in Pil. Text Soc, Vol. IV, p. 57. 

^ Abbot Daniel in Pil. Text Soc., Vol. IV, p. 26. 

'" Mtikaddasi in LeStrange, Pal. under the Moslems, p. 16. 



50 

fig called As Saba'i, and the fig of Damascus. The 
next seven are the Colocasia, or water lily, the syca- 
more, the carob or St. John's bread (locust-tree), the 
lotus fruit or jujube, the artichoke, the sugar-cane, 
and the Syrian apple. And the remaining twenty-two 
are the fresh dates and olives, the shaddock, the indigo 
and juniper, the orange,^ the mandrake, the Nabk 
fruit, the nut, the almond, the asparagus, the banana, 
the sumach, the cabbage, the truffle, the lupin, the 
early prune called At Tari; also snow, buffalo-milk, 
the honey-comb, the 'Asimi grape, and the Tamri, or 
date-fig. Further, there is the preserve called Kub- 
bait; you find, in truth, the like of it in name else- 
where, but of a different flavor. The lettuce also, 
which everywhere else, except only at Ahwaz (Persia), 
is counted as a common vegetable, is here in Palestine 
a choice dish. However, at Basrah, too, it is held 
superior to the more common vegetables." 

The produce, aside from grain and vegetables, which 
was carried into the cities, whether by the lords or 
peasants, seems to have been taxed, and in the Assizes 
of Jerusalem full lists are given of dutiable articles.^ 
Butter, cheese, nuts, olives, oil, apples, pears, straw 
for the weaving of baskets — on all these things a 
proportion was paid to the Funda or bourse. Freedom 
from duties is found, however, in special places and 
under certain lords. ^ 



^ Mas' udi in LeStrange, Pal. under the Moslems, p. 17. "The 
orange tree and the tree bearing the round citron have been brought 
from India since the year 300 A. H. (912 A. D.) and were first 
planted in 'Oman. Thence they were carried by caravans from 
Al Basrah into 'Irak and Syria." 

^ Beugnot. Lois, Vol. II, p. 178 et seq. 

3 Rohricht. Regesta, No. 212. Paoli. Cod. Dip.. Vol. I, No. 
LXXVII. 



51 

The customs on the special casalia seem to have 
differed with the different overlords, holdings and 
individual casalia. In few instances have these been 
preserved. Only where some dispute has arisen, or 
something demanding particular attention, do these 
laws come before us. These laws for the government 
of the casale are included ' in a charter of the latter 
part of the twelfth century, and are there called the 
laws of Drngomanagie, or of the interpreter.^ Besides 
these laws, most of which have been given above, ^ the 
following obligations also are mentioned : Portagtum, 
which probably consisted in the carrying of the tithes 
mentioned above at the time of their payment ; scriha- 
nagium, the duty of the writer also spoken of before; 
mensuragiimi, gardagiitm, herbarum ad areas, scenequie.^ 
It may be that these last four are part of the personal 
service owed by the villanus to his lord. The peasants 
are also commanded to be obedient to their lords." 
These are about the only purely internal laws for the 
casale which are available. The more general laws for 
the life of the casale, both external and internal, are 
found in the Assizes of Jerusalem. 

There were in the Christian dominion in Syria two 
courts, the High and Bourgeois.^ The former was 
presided over by the king, and held for his liege men. 
The latter^ was presided over by a viscount, who rep- 
resented the king's power. Each nation was governed 



1 Ibid., No. CCIII. Same in Delaville le Roulx, Cart., Vol. I, 
No. 480, p. 330. 
^ See pp. 44-46. 

3 Strehlke. Tab. ord. Theut., No. 112. 
' Paoli. Cod. Dip., Vol. I, No. CXXIV. 
^ Beugnot. Lois, Vol. I, Ox. II, p. 23. 
« Ibid. 



52 

by its own laws in things belonging peculiarly to itself. 
While the Bourgeois court was primarily intended for 
the inhabitants of the city, many of its laws extended 
to the villanus and his relation to the land and to his 
lord. The men were expected to plead their cases 
concerning lands or vines in the court held in the 
district where these things were.^ If a villanus married 
without leave a strange villana, the lord of the villanus 
returned, to the lord of the villana, another villana of 
equal age. If the villanus should die, the lord of the 
villanus ought to have his exchange which he has given 
to the other lord, if the villana returned to the latter. - 
If a villanus left or fled and was returned, the lord of 
the one returned ought to pay two besants each to 
those who aided in his return.^ And not only these 
laws existed for the return of fugitiA'e villani between 
landlords* and casalia, but between the different parts 
of the kingdom.^ The right to marry seems also to 
have been taxable as in the west.^ 

The slaves met with in the western charters do not 
appear in the farming districts in the east. Pure 
slavery seems to have existed in the towns and for 
personal service rather than for duties in the country, 
where the villani performed the services and received 
the varying rewards for their labor. 

This then was the general life of the villani of the east 
during the rule of the Frank, to whom these peasants 
paid taxes, and for whom they tilled the fields. And 



Ubid.. 


Vol. 


11 


, N( 


D. CCXXVI. 






2 Ibid., 


Vol. 


I, 


No. 


CCLIV. 






3 Ibid., 


Vol. 


I. 


No. 


CCLII. 






nbid., 


Vol. 


I, 


No. 


CCLI. 






5 Quat 


. Titres 


in Arch, de I'Or. 


Lat., 


Yo\ 


^ Beugnot. 


L 


ois. 


Vol. I, p. 264 


, note b. 



II. No. IV. p. 22S. 



53 

while there seems to be a distinction generally made 
between the slave and villanus, it must have been a 
distinction with little if any difference. And if we 
should inquire still farther into the slavery existing in 
the cities we might find that the difference was possibly 
in favor of the slave who was bound to his master as 
against the villanus who was bound to the land as well 
as to his overlord. Bound down as he was to servitude 
and reckoned as beast or any other movable,^ oppressed 
with burdens, kept ever in his humble position by the 
demands made upon him, yet his condition seems not 
to have appeared to the westerners, nor to the eastern 
people themselves, as hard. So that we must conclude 
that the Prankish domination was no more severe than 
the Mohammedan had been before. 



Philip of Navarre in Beugnot, Lois, Vol. I, Ch. XLIII, p. 519. 



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i88v 8vo. 



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